RockRodHooligan

Fast forward president day: I picked up a 96 Cherokee 4 door for $500 that had a lot of rust and rear suspension issues, but had a good running engine, transmission and transfer case work well, the dog house in good condition and intact, and the interior was in decent shape. The best part is, it was fairly unmolested. I wanted to stick with the older body style since there would be minimal modifications needed to make everything fit, I think I prefer the older body styles, I wanted the HO motor, the 96 came with better side impact doors, and OBD2 helps with diagnosing issues. I’m on a slight time/cost constraint as: 1) The lease on my ‘21 Gladiator is up next September, and after some changes in work situations, me and my wife can now car pool to work and spend most of the time driving her Toyota Corolla, we only need to drive separately 2-3 days a month. So plan is to finish the Comanche for use as a second vehicle and turn in the Gladiator, then trade her car for a 2024 AWD Prius. The MJ will still be driven year round, but only 1 day a week at best. 2) Late April I took the 1961 Impala my Dad left me to Indianapolis Raceway Park for the season opener for Cars and Coffee, they had the track opened up for Fun Runs and wanted to see what it would do. Long story short, the motor spun a bearing and I’ve got to go through the motor. While I’m in there I’m going to do some upgrades, EFI, port and polish the heads, port the oil passages, deep sump oil pan. The catch is, since the wife didn’t outright tell me she didn’t want me to take the car to the drag strip, but didn’t want me to take the car to the drag strip, and I’ve had the Comanche for almost 7 years with very little progress, I promised I would finish the Comanche before I started on the 61. The floor pans in the Comanche are in bad shape(likely a leaky window and sitting for 20 years), the drivers side rocker panel and cab corner have a little rot, and there’s some surface rust inside the frame rails in the cab. I looked into having the unibody sand blasted, and got some quotes ranging from $650-$800, or to have it chemical dipped for about a grand. Seems like a no brainer to be able to eliminate ALL the rust. I’ve done rockers and floor boards before, and I’m fairly confident I can get the get the body sealed up. I’m not in a position to go all in on the bodywork for decent quality paint job, especially since it’s still going to get driven year round, if only 3-4 times a month. The market isn’t quite there yet to go full restoration yet either. But I can preserve what’s still good, and repair the sheet metal where it needs it. All things considered, I’m going to do something a little different for the paint. The interior, chassis/frame/undercarriage, engine bay/doghouse structure, etc. will all end up getting painted with POR15 and top coated black. Yes I know it works best if painted on rust, it’s not hard to get metal to flash rust. And yes I know POR15 doesn’t have UV resistance, it will be top coated. The skin of the truck, anything that would see direct sunlight, I’m going to clear coat the bare metal. POR15 makes their Rust Preventive in clear, it should work as a good primer to clear coat over. I’m not positive what rust looks like after it’s been painted with the clear, something I’m going to have to play with. I’ve got a nephew that’s a extremely talented paint and body guy, and does a lot of custom work, I need to see if he recommends anything. Clearing the bare metal allows me to leave a lot of the little imperfections, I can even kinda half @$$ cleaning up the welds when I replace the rovers and cab corners, don’t even try to hide that it’s been repaired. If the paint gets chipped or it starts to rust, sand it clean and clear it again, move on.

1989 Jeep Comanche Pioneer 4.0/AW4/2WD/D35/Short bed Vent wing windows, sliding rear glass, cargo light, tilt, AC, cruise, bench seat, factory 4 speaker stereo. I picked it up back on 2016 with the intention of using it as a parts truck for my 89 Sportruck for $200, no title, no keys, transmission won't shift out of park, 4 flat tires, they pulled the doghouse, and tailgate, drivers wing window was out, window rolled down(don't know how long). They had said that the drivers leaf spring was broken only to find out they cut it at the eye for the bushings, then pulled it around the guys yard by the bumpers almost ripping them off. When I saw the passenger side pictures in the add, I thought they had camo wrapped part of it, no not Mossy Oak, just moss, the plates expired 02/28/2002 so it sat for the better part of 15 years. The engine and bed were full of nut shells and other junk. Came to look at it on a Friday, and paid for it, me and a friend came back the next day with a trailer to take it back home. After several hours of working on it, we got the drivers vent window back in(bottom tab rusted off), got it sat back on the drivers leaf spring(luckily they left enough to use as a cradle for the bushings still on the body), removed the driveshaft, swapped on the wheels and tires off of my Sportruck, we found out the drums were locked up and NOT coming off, so we were going to have to drag it onto the trailer. As we were doing all of this, I start noticing little things, like the interior is in surprisingly good shape(aside from the mouse poop smell and the headliner that's been chewed on), the body is in decent shape, fairly rust free(the frame is in great shape), we pulled the bed mat out with most of the nuts and junk, the inside of the bed is in pretty good shape, no rust despite all the crap that had been back there for who knows how long...... This thing looks like it has good bones. 5 hours after getting there, we finally got it on the trailer and back on the road(no help from the seller, they weren't even there). Once I got back home, I decided to take it to the car wash and spray the dirt and crap off of it so I wasn't dealing with it falling in my face once i start pulling parts off of it........ And i wanted to see what she hid under the years of dirt, see just how good of bones she had. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I decided to see if there was any chance the registration was still in the glove box, and sure enough, there it was, at the bottom of a big mouse nest that filled the glove box. Some of it was destroyed by the mice(maybe chipmunks?), but the important information was still there, the names and address last people who registered it. Something was nagging at me, so i did a quick Google search of the guys name. He passed away about 6 months earlier and I found the obituary that the funeral home put up. Turns out they guy was a Jeep guy and off-roader too.

I have (most of) a 1989 2WD MJ which me and my step son are going to build as his first car, we have a 1996 XJ which we are using as a donor to make the MJ whole again. The MJ to my knowledge was parked some time in 01/02 and hasn't been driven/started since, I do not know why it was parked. The truck was missing the dog house, the engine compartment and bed were full of walnut shells, and there was a rodent nest in the glove box. Rather than chase potential mechanical and electrical gremlins, I made the decision to do a full H.O. swap from a newer XJ, I let the kid decide if he wanted a 97 and newer, or 96 and older, he wanted 96 and older. I made the decision to use 96 for OBD2. This weekend I went and picked up the donor 1996 XJ we will be using, I know most of the swap should be fairly straight forward, the exceptions being the rear brakes to delete the ride hight proportioning valve, the wiring behind the seats for the lights and fuel pump, and with it being a 96, the fuel pressure regulator since the 96 has an in tank regulator. It has been a few years since I have owned an XJ, and even longer since I've dug in to anything this technical. What are my options? Will the the 97+ fuel pump/sending unit with the 96 fuel system so I can mimic how the 97+ builds did their fuel tanks? Or will I have to use a 95 and older style regulator at the fuel rail? Will this interfere with the OBD2? I would like this be as OE fit/finish as possible.

Iirc I had the same problem when I first signed up, I posted up on NAXJA and someone made it happen, figured I'd do the same.... Image Not Found

1989 Jeep Comanche Pioneer 4.0/AW4/2WD/D35/Short bed Build date: will have to check Current location: Noblesville IN Status: Awaiting closer inspection Notes: Vent wing windows, sliding rear glass, cargo light, tilt, AC, cruise, bench seat, factory 4 speaker stereo. I picked it up with the intention of using it as a parts truck for my 89 Sportruck for $200, no title, no keys, transmission won't shift out of park(haven't verified), 4 flat tires, they pulled the doghouse, tailgate, drivers wing window was out, window rolled down(don't know how long), had been told that the drivers leaf spring was broken only to find out they cut it at the eye for the bushings, then pulled it around the guys yard by the bumpers almost ripping them off. When I saw the passenger side pictures in the add, I thought they had camo wrapped part of it, no not Mossy Oak, just moss, the plates expired 02/28/2002 so it sat for the better part of 15 years. The engine and bed were full of nut shells and other junk. Came to look at it on a Friday, and paid for it, me and a friend came back Saturday with a trailer to take it back home. After several hours of working on it, we got the drivers vent window back in(bottom tab rusted off), got it sat back on the drivers leaf spring(luckily they left enough to use as a cradle for the bushings still on the body), removed the driveshaft, swapped on the wheels and tires off of my Sportruck, we found out the drums were locked up and NOT coming off, so we were going to have to drag it onto the trailer. As we were doing all of this, I start noticing little things, like the interior is in surprisingly good shape(aside from the mouse poop smell and the headliner that's been chewed on), the body is in decent shape, fairly rust free(the frame is in great shape), we pulled the bed mat out with most of the nuts and junk, the inside of the bed is in pretty good shape, no rust despite all the crap that had been back there for who knows how long...... This thing looks like it has good bones. 5 hours after getting there, we finally got it on the trailer and back on the road(no help from the seller, they weren't even there). Once I got back home, I decided to take it to the car wash and spray the dirt and crap off of it so I wasn't dealing with it falling in my face once i start pulling parts off of it........ And i wanted to see what she hid under the years of dirt, see just how good of bones she had. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I decided to see if there was any chance the registration was still in the glove box, and sure enough, there it was, at the bottom of a big mouse nest that filled the glove box. Some of it was destroyed by the mice(maybe chipmunks?), but the important information was still there, the names and address last people who registered it. Something was nagging at me, so i did a quick Google search of the guys name. He passed away the end of May , and I found the obituary that the funeral home put up. Turns out they guy was a Jeep guy and off-roader too. I'm considering mailing his wife a letter explaining that I now have this truck, and would like to try and rebuild this truck, and with her help, get a legitimate title for it.

1989 SWB, 2.5L TBI, AX4, 2WD, D35 open, 3.55 348,000 miles on the body, 50K(?) on a Jasper motor Colorado Red Bench seat, sliding rear window, smokers vent windows 11/15/1988 Noblesville Indiana Mild project car, designated for daily driver duty, eventually will build with inspireation from the SCCA trucks back in the day Needs some TLC but it runs and drives surprisingly well

Cost is a factor, if I can get one in good shape for a reasonable price, I'll pull the trigger. Otherwise I'll probably just build a new one

Not sure if you knew about this, but found this trying to find info on the AMC199, the baby brother to the 4.0: AMC Straight-Six During the era when real grassroots hot rodders could still race at the Indy 500, renowned land speed racer Barney Navarro shocked the motorsports world when he clocked 150-mph qualifying laps with a six-cylinder engine in 1967. Due to chassis tuning issues, Navarro's car didn't make the final cut for the race, but his lap times still stand as the fastest ever posted by a six-banger. The engine in question was a 199ci AMC inline-six, the same putt-putt mill anyone could get in a Rambler or Gremlin. Navarro liked the idea of a six-cylinder crank supported by seven main bearing caps, and the engine's over-square 3.750x3.000-inch bore and stroke dimensions were appealing as well. With a built short-block and a custom turbo system dishing out 105 psi of boost, the little six produced 700 hp. That was with the stock cylinder head, block, and rocker arms. Even if they don't realize it, the few remaining Honda drag racers weren't the first ones to combine small-displacement inline engines with a ton of boost. Read more: http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tech/1101phr_engines_that_time_forgot/viewall.html#ixzz2AjuhvXEY

Alright finally got pics of the relocated crossmember and doubled up floor pan. Here is what it started at Spent some time grinding down the welds from last time, now that I wasn't feeling so impatent it didn't go so bad. A mid-leading pic This is about as close as I'm going to try to get it with lead, I might finish it with some body filler or even a high built primer, and then bed line the whole thing. It is a lot harder than it looks, especially without someone to tell you what you are doing wrong. Where I left off And this is a big reason why I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted done, my Dads 61 Chevy Impala. It had recently been rebuilt with a flat tappet cam. My dad isn't the most mechanically attentive person, and managed to wipe out 12 of the 16 cam lobes. With all that metal floating around in the oil, it nearly seized all the wrist pins, broke a piston skirt, trashed all the bearings, and scared the crank..... Moral of the story is, if you have a flat tappet cam, use oil with zinc in it! So after a fresh rebuild with a roller cam, and an Edlebrock Performer RPM intake manifold, the engine went back in yesterday.

Sadly no progress has been made on the truck since March, I've been super busy with work opening a new store. Don't quite have the same free time I used to any more, side effect of a promotion. Been spending a little bit of time helping a couple of buddies working on their TJs too, one of them is stretching 12", 0* approach and departure angels, JK Rubicon 44's 3 link/4 link, LOTs of aluminum armor.... Kinda pimp. Good news is, I'm going up this weekend to work on it again. Get off work 3PM Sunday and don't have to be back till noon Wednesday. Aside from cleaning up the GFs car on Sunday, the rest of the time will be working on the truck. Depending on how I do with the lead work, I want to work with it one day, and start pulling the front clip off the truck, and get it ready to pull the engine/transmission as soon as I can get a cherry picker.

We will be in the vendor area with the MJ and our 2011 Chevy 2500HD. Stop by and see us. I'l be working the O'Reilly Auto Parts booth Sunday, more than likely I'll swing down after my shift is over.

You guys going to be at the Jambo in Indy again this year?

Yeah but why? Why not go the extra step and actually finish it?

A few small updates nothing big right now, but I'll be trying something I'm not sure a lot of you guys know much, if anything about. Spent a couple days working on the truck again, making progress on the back seam but it's not going together the way I want it to. I am really trying to avoid using body filler on the bed floor unless I absolutely have to, but using weld is proving difficult with the thin sheet metal. Grinding the spot welds smooth is making the sheet metal too thin for comfort, and ends up blowing through if I even point a welder in its direction. Here is were things were still ok, I should have stopped and looked at the options I was thinking about at the time and been great, but I didn't. I just took long enough of a break to double up the bottom with the section I had cut out originally, placing the original cross member directly under the seam. Then I got froggy and figured with the metal doubled up, it would be a good time to clean up the seem. Not a good idea at 8 o'clock at night after working on it all day, it went down hill from there. I got way too happy with the welder, ignored everything I know about welding thin metal, and got crazy with the heat. I finally called it quits and started researching lead. Ever hear the term "Lead Sled" when somebody was talking about an old chopped top 'Merc? Yeah that comes from them using lead before plastic body fillers like Bondo existed. This stuff is almost a lost art anymore, and it will suit my needs perfectly. The biggest advantage to Lead over Bondo is lead will actually move with the metal around it if it gets dented, as opposed to Bondo that will crack. Bondo has it's place, and there is a lot of places I will end up using it, but the floor of the bed, right at the back where it will see the most use, isn't really a place I feel comfortable using it. Yeah I plan on using a spray in bedliner, but I'm expecting right there to see a lot of use, and it's one of those places that I can see the floor getting dented, and body filler cracking, then causing nightmares with the bed liner. Here is everything I got with the leading kit I got from Eastwood: Contents left to right: Body file half round Body file flat 2 Flat paddles(bottom) 1 Half-round paddle(top) 1-lb Tinning butter Acid brushes 10- 1/4lb sticks of lead solder 1-lb. Tallow There is also an instructional DVD not pictured

Block is still at the Machine shop, his mother has been really sick with heart problems the last few weeks, so he hasn't been getting a lot done around the shop, not a big deal since I still have plenty to keep me busy with the head. He is doing the work for free, so I wouldn't complain even if I wanted to. Still porting on the head, intake ports are all roughed in, and most just need polished, I'll wait till after it gets back from getting all the machine work done, and can blend the bowl in to polish. Going to hit the exhaust and combustion chambers next. Last side by side comparison. M.O.R.E Bombproof engine brackets showed up, asked for them to leave them tacked, just incase I need to do any modifications to make the clean sheet block work in the MJ, if I need to make any modifications all I will have to do is cut a few tacks, rather than cutting entire welds. I did end up ordering the COMP Cams 68-239-4 cam and lifter kit, and I did decide to run the LS1 valvetrain, just checking options as to where to get them now.